Then and Now
by aphtrashbin
Summary: Arthur has to decide whether the past is worth more than the present and future while he's on a mission to gain power. Content warning: a little gore.


The search for his immortality and his ability to protect the things that mattered most to him had brought him to this place. A quaint little town, though a little dreary, that had children playing, and adults working and shopping about, bustling in their useless lives.

He, Arthur Kirkland, was looking for the second to last piece of the prophecy, his ability to gain power beyond his wildest dreams. And it was in his grip now, he was sure of it.

He drew nearer and nearer to the piece that held his key to immortality with every step, he felt its magic.

He came upon a village workshop that could be called quaint. But it annoyed him greatly. The man in the shop looked up and smiled at the new face. "Hello, how may I help you?" He asked kindly.

Arthur was almost taken aback by the kind greeting. "U-um." He tried to compose himself. "I... I'm here for something important" he said, managing to make his voice gruff.

The man, a handsome blonde looked back and forth, confused. "Uh" He smiled quirkily. "What, exactly? Did your sword break? That'd be pretty important, but, uh, other than that…I don't know?"

Arthur scowled. "Can we talk in private?" He didn't feel like disemboweling this poor fellow in the front of the workshop. He preferred to do things like this in private.

That made the blonde pretty uncomfortable. "Uh, sure?" He took off his gloves to reveal pretty marred hands, from years in metal work. The man gulped slightly as he walked into his shop, which was pretty messy. "Hey, sorry for the mess…"

However, Arthur didn't see anything in the shop that looked remotely magical. But, what he felt was that as the man walked away to clean up some stuff, the presence got smaller, but when he drew near, it got bigger. So it was definitely on his person then. "It's fine" Arthur said, following him in. dressed in a dark black robe and boots that went up above his ankles. He wondered if he was into magic or something.

Alfred smiled still, Arthur supposing that was good, figuring that if he died here, he would die being kind. "Alright…uh, what do you need?"

Arthur was quiet for a while. "You've got something on your person that I've been looking for" he said.

"Uh" The man froze. "Look, if you want money, I can give that to you just fine…the only thing I have on me is my mom's locket."

That might be it. "Let me see it" he said, coming closer.

"Hell no." He said, drawing back.

Suddenly, Arthur gripped the man with a terrifyingly strong force. Arthur was using magic on him. "Let me see it" he said again, eyes dark.

The man struggled in his grip, but Arthur's hand reached out, and grabbed the locket, a beautiful silver thing, and then ripped it off his neck, breaking the delicate chain. The man couldn't look, shaking, tears dripping down his face. And yet…the locket held nothing. It wasn't magical in the slightest.

Arthur scowled. "This isn't it" he said. Feeling maybe just a little guilty, he returned it to the blonde as civilly as he could. "There is something, though. I can feel it on you."

"I-I…I don't have anything else…" He said, his breath hitching, shaking in Arthur's tightening grip.

Arthur got closer, and felt the magical presence increase. "It's here!" he snapped, impatient. "You're hiding something..."

"I s-swear…" He gasped. "I-I don't…have anything..."

Arthur grabbed the collar of his shirt. "Then why can I feel something magical on you?" he demanded.

"I-I-I…I…" He gasped again, "Dunno…"

Arthur growled, and started to tear open the man's shirt. "I'll find it if you won't show me..."

The man looked terrified, begging him to stop and trying to get out of his magical hold

Arthur started to forcibly strip him, ripping off his shirt and jacket from his finely toned chest. "Give it to me" he growled. "Give it to me now!"

The man cried, and when he was completely bare Arthur realized he didn't have it on his person, but rather, _in_ his person. So, the possibility remained that this man he had been tormenting knew naught of what he was searching for.

Arthur sighed, stepping back, before realizing he had just stripped and sexually harassed an innocent man. "...Ah…"

Not only that, but he, Arthur, would probably have to kill him to get what he wanted. Alfred was crying loudly. Arthur looked at the clue he had for where the damn thing was, and it said simply. "It's in the eye of the beholder."

Perhaps, that clue was to be taken literally.

Arthur realized. So... did he need to take an eye out of this boy? He felt kind of bad already, but...

He had already killed for this cause. This would be nothing.

The man was still crying, preparing for his immanent death.

Arthur raised his hand to cast the killing spell, before he took a good look at this man's crying face. This man... somehow, his face awakened some sense of humanity in him. He slowly lowered his hand. "Stop crying" he said. "I'm not going to kill you."

Yet.

Bright blue eyes reddened by tears looked up at him, and he looked slightly hopeful.

Arthur felt his heart skip a beat. He wanted to tell him to stop looking at him like that. "It's fine. I believe you. But I think what I'm looking for is still on your person."

"But...I don't have anything." He mumbled. "I don't even know what you're...looking for..."

"It's you" Arthur said simply. He picked up his clothes and gave them back to him. "Get dressed."

The blonde looked startled, but did it, still shaking. He picked up the locket Arthur had tossed to the side, and closed his eyes, trying not to cry.

Arthur saw him, and went over to him, taking the locket out of his hand. He placed it by the broken chain on the man's neck, and murmured a spell, mending it back together. "There. Don't cry."

The younger man was confused as hell, but nodded, thanking him quietly. "W-what do you... uh, want with me?"

"I need you," he said, without any other explanation. Then he got up and left without another word.

Alfred stood there, incredibly confused and distressed, before he went back to what he was doing before the very strange encounter.

XXXXX

A few days later, Arthur was back. He had bags with him. "Do you happen to have any spare lodging?" he asked the man before him, who had frozen on the spot.

He looked anxious, panicked. "Um...no?"

"Well... do you have a room?" Arthur asked, wondering if the man was dumb or something. The man nodded, looking rather frightened.

"I need a place to stay, and I'd rather it be with you," Arthur said, rather uninterested in what Alfred thought of it, only focusing on his prize.

Power.

The man nodded, and bit his lip. "Um. Alright."

Arthur nodded. "Where's your room? I don't mind. I can summon a bed."

He only bit his lip harder. "Uhh, sorry."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Why are you sorry? I just need a room."

"Uhm. I d-don't..."

"But you sleep somewhere, don't you?"

The man before him looked like a hunted animal. "Uhhh….Y-Yes? B-But…"

"I need somewhere to stay," he said again.

Just like that, he collapsed, eyes rolling up into his head.

XXXXX

Arthur had made the man a bed, and when he woke up, he was sitting beside him.

His eyes widened, and he pushed himself off the bed, looking around frantically, probably trying to find something to defend himself with…

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what's wrong with you, but I thought you needed some rest. So I made you a bed. Lay back down."

"It's…not something like that…" He said, tentative. "But…in short, we think it's my heart..."

"Your heart?" Arthur actually seemed... a little worried. "Do you have a heart problem?"

"Yeah…" He looked sideways, before biting his lip. "Probably going to kill me in the end. I was…hoping it would kill me before you did..."

Arthur looked him over. "I can try fixing it if you want."

He looked really freaked out now. "Uhm. I'd really…like you…out." He whispered the end.

Arthur was actually kind of surprised by that last bit. "...Well, I'm sorry, but I can't do that." He got up.

The man flinched, his eyes closing hard. He put his hands up to protect himself.

"Will you stop doing that?" Arthur was kind of annoyed. "I told you, I'm not going to hurt you. I need you."

Alfred stared distrustfully. "And…And when you don't? What then? Will you…strip me again? Bind me with magic? Or…Or worse?"

"No" Arthur said simply. "I have a feeling I'll need you alive."

He clearly didn't believe him. "I…I don't want you here…"

"I'm staying" he said simply. "What's your name, man?"

The man before him looked terrified. But he nodded, gulping. "A-Alfred…" This Alfred tried to go back to what he was doing, but there was no doing that, his hands shook too badly.

Arthur noticed. "Don't worry about it" he said, sighing. "I won't hurt you." And he honestly meant it. Something about this pitiful guy made him want to protect him.

Alfred and him lived on eggshells for a long while.

That was of course, when Arthur received the clue to his next key- one of the only two remaining ones.

It took him quite far away. One day, he went up to Alfred. "I'm going to be gone for a while" was all he said. And then Alfred noticed all his stuff just... disappeared.

One day, Arthur appeared in front of Alfred. "I'm going far away. I need you to come with me."

He didn't even bother with an answer. His no was not a no, not to Arthur.

He asked if he could gather a few things.

"Of course" Arthur said. Alfred might have imagined it, but he looked kind of…gentle.

"Take your time."

Alfred packed the little that he cared for. Pictures of those he lost. Blankets and warmth, matches, and fire starting tools...he packed some items for protection. A dagger would do.

When he came back, Alfred didn't even address him. He put his bag on his back.

Arthur nodded. He got up. "I can't teleport us that far, so we'll have to walk."

Alfred sighed. He walked out the door.

Arthur followed him. He took Alfred's things, cast a spell, which made them weightless, and handed them back to Alfred.

Alfred frowned, not saying a word, following quietly.

A few miles into the walk, Arthur grew a bit bored. "Why don't you talk?" he said.

The man glared back at him. He didn't say anything to him though.

Arthur frowned just a little bit. He had his bags hovering a distance behind him. "Are you mad at me?"

He again didn't bother with a response.

Arthur stopped him in his tracks with magic. "Hey. What's the matter?"

Alfred shook, and Arthur felt his heart beating too fast again. "Let me go."

Arthur did. "What's the matter?" he said again.

"You don't care." He firmly pointed out. "You have your agenda, you don't actually care what I think."

"That's what you think." Arthur said. Although it was mostly true.

"So, even if I protested this awful event, you'd force me to come, and I'd be here anyway. However. I reveal in the simple fact I do not have to give you the satisfaction of entertainment."

Arthur snorted. "Alright, fine." If he was going to be a prick, Arthur wouldn't stop him, but it seemed that Alfred didn't care. He went right back to walking in silence.

Arthur was walking by him now. By nightfall, they had come to another town. Arthur went tot he local inn and paid for a room for the night.

The other blonde looked annoyed as Arthur walked off, and he didn't follow him.

When Alfred didn't follow him up the stairs, Arthur looked confused. "You're coming with me, right?"

He looked awkward. "I'd really rather not."

Arthur frowned a little. "But you have no money, right?"

Alfred stared flatly at him. "Then I'm sleeping outside."

"Hey!" Arthur went back downstairs, to the inn keep. "Another room, please" he muttered. Alfred grumbled, but thanked him quietly. He went to his room, and curled up in bed.

Arthur went to bed by himself. Something in his stomach felt off about this whole situation, but he couldn't yet place what that was.

XXXXX

Arthur was up before Alfred the next day. Alfred probably hadn't heard him get up, but he was already downstairs eating breakfast when Alfred went to go eat quietly opposite him. Arthur nodded at him when he sat down. He offered him a breakfast bun. But, Alfred sighed, taking it and munching on it and his omelet.

Arthur watched him quietly. "What's the matter?" he asked again.

Alfred looked almost amused at that. "Well, seeing as you're my future killer, I don't see how we can be great friends."

Arthur looked annoyed. "I told you, I'm not going to kill you."

Alfred looked unsure. He didn't believe him.

Arthur sighed. "I swear I have no intent to kill you. Do you want me to put a pact on it?" He still looked unimpressed. He finished his breakfast, and went back up to go get his things.

Arthur was still downstairs when Alfred came back. Well, it wasn't like he was unused to being lonely. But somehow, he wanted to get this guy to talk to him. Alfred had been a kind man at first, with a big smile and a warm opening, and now all Arthur got from him was mistrust and a sense of fatalism.

Arthur looked like he was deep in thought. He eventually got up and went to get his things. Alfred just kept up the quiet behavior on the road.

Arthur eventually tried to strike up a little conversation once again. "Are you feeling okay?" he asked."

He didn't answer him. He simply kept walking.

Arthur was quiet as he was denied conversation again. He eventually drew back. It was a few days before they got to the town where Arthur needed to be next.

XXXXX

Now, he hadn't noticed it, but while Arthur had been killing the owner of the next piece, a mother and child, Alfred had gotten lost.

Arthur noticed he was lost a while after he was, and started to panic. He _needed_ that idiot! He immediately sought out the clearest body of water he could find, and attempted to scry Alfred, trying to find his location.

Panicked, he looked into the water only to see…that Alfred was just playing along with some of the kids in the village.

Arthur breathed a sigh of relief and went to find him. He had taken off his cloak from the heat, and for a second Alfred thought he looked quite normal. Under the cloak, he had been wearing a plain cotton shirt and dark pants. He had his cloak draped over his arm now instead. "Alfred" he called gently.

Alfred scowled at him, his easy smile gone.

Arthur froze a bit, before coming closer. "If you're going to go somewhere, tell me so I don't panic."

Alfred rolled his eyes, telling the kids to have fun, before he went back to silence.

Arthur was quiet. "No, it's fine. You can stay here. I'm going to go get what I need. Just don't leave here, okay?"

Alfred bristled. He clearly didn't like being told what to do. He frowned.

Arthur wobbled a bit, and then, Alfred looked unsure, and bit his lip, before went over to him. "Great." Alfred looked him over quietly.

Arthur looked at him almost a bit strangely. He a bit pale, and most certainly confused as to what Alfred was doing. Surprisingly, he asked if Arthur was okay, his kind heart feeling for him, since he obviously wasn't.

"Fine" he mumbled. He put the charm away from where he had stolen it. "But thanks for asking."

He shrugged. "Are you sure?" Alfred asked.

Arthur felt a cold wave wash over him, and he shivered. "I think I overdid it a little," he mumbled. "But I'll be okay soon."

The man's features really did remind Arthur of someone. But who?

Alfred nodded. "Do we keep going?"

Arthur looked surprised, but it quickly disappeared. "I have to wait for my next clue," he mumbled.

Alfred shrugged. He started to walk back to the inn.

Alfred slept like that until Arthur had to wake him up.

Arthur did wake him eventually. "Let's just go to another town," he said. "I know one close to here that's on the ocean."

Alfred got up, dusting himself off. "Okay..."

Arthur led the way until they came upon a little fishing town. Alfred hadn't seen the ocean in a long time.

Alfred smiled nostalgically at it. It had been before...his mother and brother had died.

Arthur noticed Alfred's smile, and smiled a bit himself. "Do you like it?" he said.

"I haven't been down to the ocean since before my mom and bro were killed." He said, smile ebbing.

Arthur looked at him quietly. "Do you want to go again?"

Alfred didn't answer, seeming to be lost in his own world. "The man who killed them...and almost me...acted a lot like you do."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Are you alright?"

He shook himself out of the memory. "Yeah. Just bringing up old ghosts." He looked down. "I don't mind. I'd rather get some sleep first."

"That's fine" Arthur said. He got Alfred a room at the inn, and a room for himself.

Alfred got to bed, but had terrors about the night his father had single handedly destroyed his family, waking up several times in the night and crying. Arthur could feel him thinking about that time, and something in his heart cried out for him.

The next morning, Arthur was downstairs eating again.

Alfred ate quietly at the table with him. But what did his father and Arthur have in common...? He didn't know.

Besides the fact that Arthur looked filiar to him, he couldn't really pin anything down. That day, Arthur was fairly sparse. Alfred spotted him down at the piers, sitting with his feet in the water.

Alfred sat down beside him, sighing as he dipped his feet in.

Arthur seemed startled. "O-oh... hi" he mumbled. He wasn't wearing his creepy mage cloak. When he was out of that thing, he looked downright normal.

"You remind me of someone." He mumbled.

Arthur looked up, a bit surprised. "R...really...?"

He nodded, sighing. "I don't know from where. Probably my half-forgotten childhood..."

Arthur looked at him a little strangely. "So you're saying you think you knew me when you were a kid?"

He nodded, staring out into the ocean. "Yeah..."

Arthur was quiet. "I... I don't really remember my childhood anymore" he said.

He nodded, agreeing. "Neither do I. But I know you from somewhere."

Arthur was quiet. "I…I think that I might know you too" he mumbled. "Just faintly."

Alfred smiled at him a bit, and there was a flash of a smile, young blue eyes the color of the sky.

Arthur was suddenly struck by an overwhelming sense of distress, and he lost his balance for a second, gulping and looking away. He put his hand to his head. "I-I definitely... recognize you" he said, choked up a bit.

Alfred had caught him, smiling a bit, one eyebrow raised and his laugh lines showing faintly. "Don't fall in, stupid."

Arthur blinked, registering what had just happened for a second, before his face turned all red. "S-sorry" he mumbled. What the hell? That was adorable.

Alfred set him back down. "I don't know. It's rough, but I feel like we were meant to find each other again."

Arthur was still blushing. "Hm," he managed. "Yeah. Maybe."

Alfred looked to him quietly, and sighed.

Arthur was staring pointedly at the water. Alfred noticed the chain of the pendant that was always around Arthur's neck sticking out from under his shirt collar.

The younger man looked at it quietly. "Hey...can I see that pendant?"

Arthur froze. "A-ah…no" he said, a bit quickly. "Sorry."

Alfred frowned. "Alright. That's fine."

Alfred could see the charm if he looked down Arthur's shirt just right. It looked like it was a locket. Arthur noticed Alfred staring down his collar eventually, though, and pulled his arms close to his body, looking at him strangely.

Alfred shrugged. "I just thought it was weird."

"What's weird?" he said, visibly embarrassed.

"That you basically forced me to show you mine but you, when I ask nicely, won't do the same."

Arthur mulled it over, staring off into the distance. "Fine" he said, pulling the chain up and over his head. "But you can't open the locket." The man agreed, and took it, comparing the two quietly.

Arthur's was quite different, but somehow they looked similar. There was a floral pattern carved on the front of Arthur's locket. Alfred recognized it as his family emblem. Alfred frowned. "Why do you have my family emblem on your locket...? Because, that is my family emblem, for sure."

"I...I didn't know. I don't remember where I got this from." He paused. "But.. I know it's... important to me."

Alfred nodded, sighing. "Alright. No problem." He let it fall back to his chest.

The green-eyed man took his pendant back and put it back on around his neck. He was quiet. Why did he know Alfred? When had he known him?

Alfred got up, gently ruffling Arthurs hair. "I'm going to get dinner."

Arthur nodded quietly. He remained at the dock for a long time after it had gotten dark. Alfred later had to go and collect him, telling him off for still being out here at this hour.

"Sorry..." Arthur mumbled. "I lost track of time." He went back, eating a bit of his dinner, before going to his room.

Arthur didn't know how to think about it. On one hand, he was happy. But on the other hand, he felt rather strange. He wanted to know just where he knew this fellow from, where did they meet?

Did it matter?

He got another clue, and so was on the move again.

XXXXX

Arthur told Alfred to rise in the early morning. "We need to move again" he said. Alfred hated waking up early, and made that plainly clear that morning.

The mage told Alfred to follow him. The other blonde simply nodded, and he kept going, annoyed and tired but still listening to Arthur.

This time, they came upon a rather old looking castle town.

There was an old man waiting for him, and Arthur nodded at him.

Alfred looked rather worried. "Arthur...?"

The old man said simply one thing. "The boy. Kill him."

Arthur didn't think, he just extended a hand towards Alfred behind him, aimed his magic, and shot him down, the younger man collapsing in a heap, and Arthur no longer felt his pulse.

He was gone, never to laugh or get mad at Arthur again. He was dead, and Arthur simply focused on his reward.

This was for the boy he had known as a child. This was to get power to protect him.

The man before him chuckled, before it got louder, and louder. "Good job, humans never cease to amaze me. Before I give you your power, I am obligated to inform you how this all works in the end. Give me your trinkets, and one of the boy's eyes."

Arthur nodded, grabbing one out of his face delicately, but Alfred didn't move, or protest. Something felt off.

The man took everything from him, 7 clues that had led him here. "Now, all magic is bound by the basic principles of equivalent exchange. You cannot gain, without losing something in return." He said, smugly. "You came to me to get more power, but to do that, you had to get these 7 things for me, and in getting them, you killed the people who owned them, once."

"Yes," Arthur looked confused, his face scrunching up. "But what does that have to do with this?"

"In killing those people, you, in turn, sacrificed futures you can now never have. Each one of those people had been meant for your life, and now you will never know the joy of having them, from the lover who you would have given your life for." He pointed to Alfred, dead on the ground. "To the young girl you would have taken in after her mother was killed." He held up the doll. "To the master who would have treated you like a son." He held out the ring. "Each one of these people would have been a person in your life who would have cared for you, and loved you. And you asked me for power."

Arthur looked horrified. "W-What… What did I…?"

"I find it extremely ironic that the man you killed just now, your future lover and husband, was the one you wanted this power for." He snorted. "But I suppose the human mind is so fragile, you forgot what he looked like. You were so eager to kill him, and now what? It doesn't matter."

Arthur started to cry, tears dripping down his face as he finally put it together who the boy was in his mind. Alfred, Alfred, how could he have forgotten that Alfred was the one he had done this for? He cried, looking to where he lay, cold and dead, having finished the job his father had tried to do years before, though he had protected him from the man back then.

How ironic, and how tragic it truly was.

"I don't care. You're going to get what you asked for, now that you held up your end of the bargain." He smiled, lifting a hand, and filling Arthur with the power he had blindly chased after.

However, Arthur, though a mage, was still human, and so he couldn't tolerate the amount of magic there was inside him now. It drove him mad, and he couldn't fight when the old man fed him to something, leaving him there to die, chuckling at the idiocy of human kind.

Arthur closed his eyes, vaguely realizing that this was the best fate he could have anyway.

XXXXX

But, he woke up again, in a bed, by himself. There was someone on the porch, sitting in the chair.

Arthur got up, shaky, and struggled to it, feeling out of it and dazed.

"So you're up." He heard the voice, but he didn't believe it. "Damn my heart…It killed me before you did, and all I had to do was play dead."

Alfred turned around, an eyepatch on one single eye, and he looked to Arthur, sighing.

Arthur gaped. "Y-you…"

"My heart killed me before you did." He muttered. "So, when your spell hit me, it thought I had already died, and I was spared…whether that's a good thing, or not, I don't know."

Alfred sighed, grabbing his things.

Arthur looked to him. "What are you doing…?" He asked, scared. He had finally found him again.

"I'm going to start a new life." He said, simple. "You're too weak to follow me now."

The mage felt ready to cry. "B-But…I found you again."

"And you really almost killed me, for what?" Alfred said, tiredly. "For my eye. I'm going. Rest, live on, but…don't come after me."

And so Alfred left, and that was that. Arthur truly had destroyed his future…The old man had been right.

XXXXX

It was many years later when the two ran into each other again.

"Ah…Arthur?" Alfred had asked him. The man was on the ground, sleeping, looking like he had spent the night drinking. Alfred cursed his kind heart, and just picked him up, carrying him away.

One of them had to be kind in the end, Alfred supposed.

XXXXX

A/N: Wow! Long work, right!


End file.
